Music

Must be something about Monterrey. Picture it: Every year, the Mexican soccer league has two seasons, winter and summer, and before each season kicks off, excitement abounds in all of Mexico’s stadiums. Nowhere, though, is the electricity more palpable than in Monterrey, which puts on a jubilant, colorful celebration, complete…

As the opening credits roll, the film’s soundtrack slowly fades in. On the screen, Kevin Kline shuts off his alarm and stumbles around in Fruit of the Looms as the audience hears a pleasant, bongo-led melody. Two male singers vocalize prettily, their harmonies dancing around each other, joining up occasionally…

Coming from a band that’s known for playing hotheaded punk — aggressive, but ever mindful of the importance of melody — Wretch Like Me’s ambitious new album, I Am Become Death, is a little disconcerting. “You kind of get bored playing three chords,” says singer Abe Brennan. “It’s kind of…

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the Flaming Lips’ second disc since reimagining themselves on 1997’s Zaireeka. It’s casually electronic and curiously acoustic, with sounds from either end of the musical spectrum crashing in the middle and collapsing into smiling, sad piles of overcast optimism and, as leader Wayne Coyne…

Japanese taiko drumming is an art form that is as visual as it is auditory. Kodo’s army of drummers, sinewy and scantily clad in traditional costume, muscle 882-pound drums in perfectly choreographed unison while participating in a complex piece of performance art that is equal parts athletic performance and spiritual…

There are a number of reasons to marvel over Alisha Sweeney. At 22, she’s just graduated from the journalism department at the University of Colorado at Boulder with her second bachelor’s degree in five years. She’s an artist preparing for her first gallery show: “art Projects” will be on display…

The Damnations are proof that a great band name can bite you on the butt. Half Mad Moon, the Austin, Texas, group’s 1999 debut for Sire, is one of the best twang-and-roll records of the past few years. Highlighted by the haunting, Appalachians-in-leather harmonies of sisters Amy Boone (bass and…

Sin Desires Marie really doesn’t belong here. The band’s compelling mutation of aggression, melody and intelligence has a hard time finding a niche in Denver’s testicle-heavy punk and emo scenes. Even after being personally invited by Fugazi to open one of its sold-out shows at the Ogden last year, Yoon…

In Say It Loud!, an ambitious VH1 documentary about the musical accomplishments of African-Americans during the past century, LL Cool J talks about his first rush of fame. Stardom struck him full force at age seventeen, when his thrillingly cocky debut album, 1985’s Radio, became one of the biggest smashes…

Arthel “Doc” Watson, the legendary folk singer and guitarist, answers the phone at his home in Deep Gap, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Rosa Lee. “Hello,” he says. “Who is this?” I state my name and purpose and inquire how he’s doing. “If I complain,” he says…

What happens when a bunch of bona fide band geeks go on vacation? For members of Drum Corps International, the answer often involves a lot of cramming into confined spaces, public airing of bodily functions, plenty of communal nudity and a whole lot of marching around in funny hats. Each…

Like most of Paul Westerberg’s post-Replacements work, Stereo and Mono are most listenable when the artist conveys vulnerability without the sappiness he often mistakes for maturity. The curiously named Stereo, essentially a solo project featuring sparse instrumentation and slower tempos, sports the most effective examples of Westerberg at his post-Winona-dating…

Even before my first spin of Fed to Your Head had ended, I sensed that the album would inspire strongly contradictory feelings, and a brief prowl across the Internet confirmed my suspicions. An online reviewer at ink19.com likened Scorched Earth to “a third-rate Lenny Kravitz” and concluded with comments that…

David Barber spent his last day as president of the Colorado Music Association in the organization’s Broadway office, doing paperwork and staring at a computer screen. “I’m sitting here entering names into a database, basically, because no one else would,” he says. “But I think this is the last time…

Meet Sydney, Australia’s latest musical export, the Vines, a former Nirvana cover band currently shilling Highly Evolved (Capitol), a sneering foray into metal-tinged pop. Just a few short months after their stateside debut at the Coachella Music Festival, the Vines are winding their way across the country on their very…

Though Aloke Dutta, the writer, spiritualist and master of classical Indian tabla percussion, claims the headlining space at the Gothic Theatre on Saturday, July 27, opener Katalyst provides a compelling incentive for early arrival. The Denver band, which began as Wicked Groove six years ago, is a testament to the…

Our everyday experiences have more influence on our music than anything else does,” says Dan Matz, singer and guitarist of Windsor for the Derby, a group whose members split their time between upstate New York and Austin, Texas. “All sorts of everyday things inspire me. I could write a song…

Kyle “Scratch” Jones of the Philly-bred group the Roots thinks it’s just about time for the return of the beatboxer. He’s so confident that hip-hop heads will embrace the mouthy art that he’s just dropped a solo release, The Embodiment of Instrumentation, which showcases his ability as a producer and…

After years of quietly making music with impeccable underground cred, it would seem that Marc Bianchi and his longtime partner/sometime bandmate, Keely, have created a monster with their musical project, her space holiday. Last year, they released a second album, Manic Expressive, which received accolades from the music press on…

Optometry is hardly the first album to mingle jazz, hip-hop and DJ culture. It’s not even the first platter to do so on Thirsty Ear: In June 2001, Spring Heel Jack, a London duo that’s rightly viewed as an innovator in the drum-‘n’-bass subgenre, unleashed its own entry in Thirsty…